Welcome and headline news: Issue 5 - March 2024 | Accord Magazine

Welcome from Ged

Welcome to the latest edition of our online magazine for members.

This edition marks the election of a new President of Accord to succeed Neil Magill who has held the position with distinction since 2020. You can read more from Neil on page 4.

The result will be declared shortly after the ballot closes on 19th March. The new President and the re-invigorated Principal Executive Council take office at the close of our biennial delegate conference in Glasgow on 19th April.

Conference is the key event in the union’s calendar. It gives members an opportunity, through their delegates, to review the union’s performance in the preceding two years and set its aims for the next two. It’s the pinnacle of our democratic accountability and we hope you’ll take a keen interest whether or not you’re a delegate. You can read more about conference on page 5.

The outputs from conference will set our agenda through to 2026. We’ll be pursuing this agenda in the context of continuing changes in the industry as banks adjust to the expected fall in interest rates leading to a downturn in profits from traditional banking.

And we’ll be facing into the challenge of adapting to technological changes which are driving the pace of change in the way we live and work. That pace will never be as slow in the future as it is now. And that’s a massive challenge facing us all.

Since our last magazine, both TSB and Lloyds Banking Group have announced the variable pay awards that staff will enjoy in February and March respectively before the pay increases we’ve negotiated are applied in April.

Through this, the challenges on security of employment and creating the best possible lives at work for our members won’t stop. Both LBG and TSB continue to re-organise their businesses, cut jobs and close branches.

As always, our President, Principal Executive Council members, all Accord’s staff and I will work tirelessly to protect and promote your employment interests.

As we get into spring, we’ll need your support too.

I’m delighted to report that Accord’s membership increased by 6% in 2023. Please play your part in helping us grow in 2024 too by encouraging any of your colleagues who aren’t members of Accord or Unite to join us. We’re holding our subscription level down to help – we’re still charging the same subscription rates as we did in 2019.

Thanks for being a member of Accord.

Very best wishes

Ged

Accord subs to be held down for a fifth year

The rate of inflation may be slowing but this doesn’t mean that the cost-of-living is going down and many families are still struggling to make ends meet.

Accord is doing all we can to support members. We work hard to put money in members’ pockets when they need it most, including a further pro-rated ex-gratia payment of £500 for all colleagues in grades A-D in LBG that was paid in December 2023.

Members in TSB and LBG have pay awards to look forward to in April and variable pay awards before then too.

Although it won’t make a huge difference to your budgets, we’re making a contribution as well. Accord subscriptions haven’t been increased since April 2019 and they will stay the same throughout 2024. We’re absorbing the impacts of increasing running costs through careful management of our finances without passing them on to you. It’s the right thing to do in these difficult times.

Here’s a quick reminder of some of the extra benefits that can help you save money and are free to access as part of your Accord membership….

More about membership benefits

Private healthcare cashback

One of our most popular benefits - Accord members whose employer provides private healthcare, regardless of grade, can claim 50% of the excess on their policy. For most of our members that's £75 cashback in any rolling 12-month period. Full terms apply.

In 2023 we refunded just under £80,000 towards members’ excess payments - making access to employer funded schemes more affordable for many.

Find out about healthcare cashback

Accord travel club

The Accord travel club is operated by Benchmark Travel, no other travel company has the same incentive to offer you the exclusive member discounts and levels of service that we do. It's a free benefit as part of your Accord membership. What's more, your family can use this service, and you can even share discounts with your friends if you're travelling with them.

Take a look at what the Accord Travel Club can do for you and how they can save you money on your perfect getaway.

Find out about the travel club

Legal services

Experts you can trust, on hand when you need them. All union members and immediate families are entitled to use the legal services - including free, confidential legal advice and personal injury claims.

Learn more about the legal services that Accord offers, including the details you need to use these services. We use three leading legal providers across the UK - Slater & Gordon in England & Wales, Dallas McMillan in Scotland, and Francis Hanna & Co in Northern Ireland.

Find out about legal services

Pay & reward in Lloyds Banking Group

It seems like a long time ago now but back in October 2023 nearly 70% of eligible Accord members voted in our ballot on the pay proposals we negotiated with LBG for 2024 and 2025.

The majority in favour of the proposals was nearly 4:1 and:

A majority of members who voted in every grade were in favour of the deal
This pattern of support was the same whether members work full-time or part-time
The responses were positive irrespective of age and length of service

Based on this response, we signed an agreement with LBG that, in December 2023, delivered a further and very welcome £500 payment into the salaries of members in grades A to D (pro-rated for those working reduced hours).

When LBG announced its annual results for 2023 on 22nd February, it also confirmed the outcomes for its annual Group Performance Share (GPS) award. This will be paid in March and June 2024, as appropriate.

The GPS outcomes have been generally positive and there’s still more to come under Accord’s agreement with LBG. Under the agreement:

A full-time member of staff will get a minimum pay rise of £1,500 (pro-rated for part-time staff) effective from 1 April 2024
For staff up to and including grade E, 4% will be paid where 4% is more than £1,500
For staff in grades F & G, a budget of 3.5% will be distributed by managerial discretion
There will be no pay matrix so staff with salaries above their grade mid-points won’t be disadvantaged
For staff above their pay range maxima, the awards will be paid as lump sums, not consolidated into salaries
The same awards will be applied with effect from 1 April 2025
The minimum salary from 1 April 2024 will be increased to £23,500
The minimum salary from 1 April 2025 will be £25,000

In 2023, the pay award and additional £500 payment taken together amounted to around a 13% increase for the lowest paid staff in Lloyds Banking Group. Our latest agreement (including the £500 payment in December 2023) will increase average salaries for staff in Grade A by a further 14% by April 2025. And through successive union agreements between March 2021 and April 2025, the minimum salary in LBG will have risen by more than 30%.

There’s plenty more to do to address member's remaining concerns about pay – and we look forward to hearing motions on future reward at our conference in April.

So, if you have something to say, please get involved in shaping our agenda. Speak to your rep about submitting a motion from your branch, department or team.

Making the most of your pension

As a union, we want our members to be as well off as possible, both now and in retirement. So, we’re encouraging you to think about your pension arrangements and make sure you’re getting the most value possible out of your LBG pension scheme.

Of course, we understand that many members are facing financial pressures in the current economic climate. But it’s important to remember that high inflation will also have an impact on the value of your pension pot, with the same level of contribution delivering less spending power later in life.

Additionally, the level of income needed to sustain a reasonable quality of life in retirement is going up. According to figures issued by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) earlier this year, a single person now needs £31,300 a year for a moderate income in retirement.

Women are particularly at risk of reaching retirement with inadequate pension savings, with career gaps, greater caring responsibilities, high childcare costs and lower earnings all feeding into the disparity. Recent research from the Pensions Policy Institute found that women retiring at the new state pension age of 67 will have saved an average of £69,000 compared with £205,000 for men.

Your Tomorrow Scheme

All new joiners to LBG are automatically enrolled in the Your Tomorrow pension scheme. Under auto-enrollment, you’ll pay the minimum core contribution rate of 3% and will receive the minimum company contribution of 9% of basic pay.

However, you might not be aware that if you contribute more than the basic rate, the relative value of the employer’s contribution increases. The breakdown is as follows:

If you pay 3%, the Group will contribute 9%.
If you pay 4%, the Group will contribute 10%
If you pay 5%, the Group will contribute 13%
If you pay 6% or more, the Group will contribute 15%

As these figures show, over the duration of a career, the financial benefit of opting-in to a higher contribution rate will be very significant. But at the moment, of the 55,000 colleagues enrolled in the scheme, only about 27,000 are making contributions at 6% or more.

Given the current trends, and the clear long-term advantage, we’re encouraging anyone who can to consider increasing their employee contribution to Your Tomorrow.

Find out more about LBG Pension schemes

Pensions planning - an alarm clock with work and retired written with the time reaching between the two — Making the most of your pension

Defined benefit schemes (used to be ‘final salary’ schemes)

For the remaining members of the defined benefit schemes in Lloyds Banking Group, the imposition of the 0% cap on the growth of pensionable pay in the schemes in 2014 is a wound that will never heal.

It's now ten years since the cap was imposed and the real value of the scheme members’ retirement incomes has been significantly eroded. The gap between actual salaries and pensionable salaries has widened as a result of inflation and the increases in salaries Accord has negotiated over the last couple of years.

Despite repeated calls for LBG to do something about the cap, it seems increasingly unlikely that it will. The number of scheme members continues to decline and the costs to the employer of the DB schemes continue to be well in excess of the Your Tomorrow scheme.

So, what can DB scheme members do to improve their incomes in retirement?

We can’t give advice but there are options to consider.

You can find more information on LBG pension options here.

Please send any comments or queries to [email protected]